Water (hydration): The percentage of water relative to flour weight. White bread typically uses 60–68% hydration for a tight crumb, while ciabatta runs 75–85% for an open, airy interior.
Salt: Most bread doughs use 1.8–2.2% salt by flour weight. Salt controls fermentation speed, strengthens gluten, and develops flavor — too little and the dough rises too fast and tastes flat.
Yeast: Commercial yeast is typically 0.5–1% of flour weight for same-day bakes. Sourdough replaces commercial yeast with a starter (usually 15–25% of flour weight), which is not modeled here.
Total dough weight: The sum of all ingredients. Use this to estimate loaf size — a standard sandwich loaf pan holds roughly 800–1,000 g of dough.
How This Calculator Works
You enter a flour weight in grams plus hydration, salt, and yeast as baker's percentages. The calculator multiplies each percentage by the flour weight to get the ingredient amount in grams, then sums everything for total dough weight. Baker's percentages always reference flour as 100%, which makes scaling recipes and comparing formulas straightforward. Presets for white, sourdough, and ciabatta load common starting ratios.
Quick Questions
What is baker's percentage?
Baker's percentage expresses every ingredient as a percentage of total flour weight. Flour is always 100%. So 65% hydration means 65 g of water for every 100 g of flour. This system makes it easy to scale recipes up or down without recalculating ratios.
How do I adjust hydration for whole wheat flour?
Whole wheat absorbs more water than white flour because of the bran. Start about 5–10% higher in hydration than a comparable white bread recipe and adjust based on dough feel — it should be tacky but not sticky.
Can I use this for sourdough starter amounts?
The sourdough preset sets yeast to 0%, but it does not calculate starter quantity. A typical sourdough uses 15–25% starter relative to flour weight. You can manually add your starter's flour and water contributions to get a more precise hydration estimate.
Does altitude affect these ratios?
At elevations above 3,000 feet, dough rises faster and can over-proof. Reduce yeast by about 25% and consider slightly lower hydration. The baker's percentages themselves stay the same — the adjustment is in how much yeast you use.